A Lapse In Time
by Chaotic Century
Summary: Life is best enjoyed slowly, so as to savor all the details. A MM one-shot.


**A LAPSE IN TIME**

**Written by Van, ©2005**

* * *

_**Day 1  
-72 Hours Remain-  
**_

It was a fine, summery day, with a sweet, wavering wind. Cottony clouds dotted an endless blue sky; the view in all directions was marred only by an unusually large and menacing moon which hung low over the land. The moon had been growing larger and larger by the day as of late, but Romani could not bring herself to care. After all, that was grown-up stuff, for grown-ups to worry about. Romani did not concern herself with grown-up stuff.

A fine day such as this would clearly be wasted, were it spent on chores. Romani resolved to milk and feed the cows as quickly as she could, and then see if she could get away with not dusting and tidying the insides of the modest home she shared with her older sister.

She was just scattering grain on the ground in front of the barn for the happy cuccos to eat when she spotted a figure in green in the distance, by the entrance to the ranch. "Oh!" she cried in excitement, hurling the rest of the grain into the air, causing a commotion among the cuccos, and dashing off.

Upon approaching this stranger, who appeared to be about her age, Romani discovered that not only had she never seen him before, a rarity for a sociable girl of Termina, but that he was definitely not from around here. His odd clothes indicated as much. A foreigner was almost unheard-of in the shielded lands of Termina, and these facts made the strange boy irresistibly interesting to Romani.

"Hi!" she welcomed him, bubbling over with curiosity. "What's your name? Where are you from? How did you get here? What do you want at our ranch?"

Rather than respond with equal enthusiasm, the boy merely smiled faintly and bowed his head to her in greeting.

Perplexed at this non-reaction, Romani considered the boy for a moment, then pressed on, "Well, if you don't tell me your name, I'll come up with one to call you. You have funny clothes, and they're bright green, just like the color of a grasshopper. So I'll call you Grasshopper!"

The boy nodded, evidently unwilling to argue this choice of a name.

"Okay! So come on then, Grasshopper! I'll show you the ranch. It's the most wonderful place in all of Termina! And maybe the whole world, too, but I don't know because I've never been outside of Termina before." She turned to walk backwards and face him as she talked. "Have you?"

The boy considered for a moment the countless adventures he'd had in Hyrule and beyond, and felt justified in nodding.

"You have! I knew you weren't from around here! What's it like?"

Once again, the boy did not answer. His face betrayed very little emotion, indeed. Romani found him quite strange.

They continued walking along over gently sloping hills until the house and barn came into view. Suddenly, the boy's mouth dropped open in shock, and he dashed off towards the horse Romani had corralled in the small pen adjacent to the house. The filly's arrival circumstances had been most unusual; Romani had discovered her that very morning, grazing near the house, alone, with no bridle, saddle, or indication of an owner. Romani fancied that she might have seen a scarecrow floating away in the distance at the time she'd found the young horse, but of this she could not be sure. It would not have been the strangest thing she'd ever seen, but then, the sunrise might have been playing tricks on her eyes.

The boy raced towards the horse, and the horse reared and whinnied excitedly. Romani watched her caress the boy's shoulder, and realized that they must know each other. "That your horse?" she asked.

The boy nodded, and she finally saw some emotion on his face. He was smiling as he pressed his cheek against the filly's soft muzzle, and he closed his eyes, obviously overjoyed to have found his friend again. "She's a really sweet girl," Romani said conversationally, walking over to open the corral gate. He nodded again, still smiling. "I've got a horse, too. Her name is Leaf." She gestured towards the barn. "Let's ride!"

Romani retrieved Leaf and clambered aboard with the help of a box that was sitting out in the open nearby. A scruffy white Scottie dog came zooming out from behind the house just then, yapping playfully and dancing about the horses' hooves. The boy mounted his horse and looked to Romani for direction. She gave Leaf's chestnut rump a light smack, and yelled, "Come on, Grasshopper! Try to catch me!"

Romani and her new friend played together for the rest of the day, taking turns at racing, jumping fences, or charging around an obstacle course she'd set up that featured balloons in the shape of large, black, spindly creatures. The boy shot each expertly with his bow, causing the little girl to squeal and clap her hands with delight.

* * *

Dusk began falling quietly upon the ranch. Romani and the boy leaned against the wooden crate in front of her house and watched the last faint rays of the sun dipping behind the trees. Leaf and the boy's horse grazed nearby.

Romani sipped from her steaming mug of broth. "You know why I had you run that obstacle course?" she asked, turning away from the horizon to look at him. "I need your help. They're coming."

The boy looked at her questioningly, inviting clarification.

"The aliens! They're coming tonight. I have to stop them. My sister Cremia doesn't believe me, so she won't help me. But you believe me, right? If you help me, we can protect the cows. The aliens come to steal the cows. So can I count on you?"

The boy nodded, showing neither skepticism of nor belief in her tale.

"Thanks! They'll be here tonight at 2AM. I'm so glad I can count on you." They sat for some time more, as the sky slowly changed colors and the sun sunk further and further out of sight. Romani sipped from her mug again and smiled at her friend. He did not notice, however, and instead was gazing at the fearsome moon, the moon which did not glow like the moon he remembered from Hyrule did. His brow was furrowed. Romani stared at him intently, her eyes traveling curiously over each worried line of his face. Suddenly overcome with emotion, she leaned over and hugged him as hard as she could. "I really like you, Grasshopper," she whispered in his pointed ear. Even as she did all this, even as she felt his body tense and then slowly relax, she knew that this boy held a loneliness in his heart that she would never be able to imagine.

The pair sat there, holding each other and sipping from their mugs occasionally, until the stars twinkled sweetly in the heavens above them. Romani instinctively understood that there was something different about this boy, something that indicated his soul was far older than his young years suggested. He carried a weighty burden, it seemed, a burden that no child his age should be able to bear.

"Come on," she said softly to him, smiling as warmly as she was able, in hopes of melting some of the ice freezing his insides. "Why don't you stay on the ranch with us tonight?"

The boy stood, and together they walked inside.

* * *

**_Day 2  
-48 Hours Remain-  
_**

The boy awoke very early the next morning, before Romani and Cremia had even awoken. He had not gotten very much sleep, having slumbered only six hours over the night, and a mere half hour that morning. Romani, it seemed, was sleeping in today, considering that it was well past her customary 6AM wake-up time. She deserved the extra rest, he thought to himself; it had been quite a busy night.

Unable to sleep any longer, he rose from the straw pallet the sisters had set up for him downstairs, and went outside.

The moon was significantly closer now; its threat loomed larger than ever. The boy knew what had to be done, and he also knew that he could not do it yet. There was plenty of time – all the time in the world, in fact – and maybe, just this one run-through, he could take a breather.

Tatl had been largely staying out of his way all this time, sensing that he needed some time to be a whole, rather than half of a pair. She emerged from his pack and hovered nearby. "It's okay," she assured him. "In the end, you're not causing harm to anybody, and that's all that matters." He looked at her, grateful to hear these words. "I'll be in Clock Town. Meet me there when you're ready." She flitted off in the direction of Termina Field, and the bustling little city in its center.

The boy stuck his hands in his pockets and shuffled off to explore the rest of the ranch. One area at the west end of the ranch featured a door, which was framed in wood paneling with little cuccos painted on it. He went inside.

The new area he encountered was something like a little courtyard. Various panels with shapes cut in them were dotted here and there across a small meadow. A smattering of cucco chicks were pecking about in the grass. In the middle of this scene was a young man. He was almost ghoulish in appearance, and sported a Mohawk that resembled a cucco's crest. He seemed quite depressed.

The young Hylian approached the man, who looked up at him and sighed. "The moon's going to fall soon," he told his visitor, "and it will end the world as we know it. I don't think anyone will survive. I don't really care about dying, I guess, but…" His voice trailed off sadly as he looked around him at the oblivious and merry chicks. "I'll never see these little guys grow up," he finished.

The boy considered the man's plight for a moment, then remembered a mask he had with him, a mask that supposedly made little animals become adults. He put it on, and immediately an energetic, sprightly tune popped into his head. He knew, instinctively, that he needed to play this song for the chicks.

Pulling out his ocarina, the boy began marching around the courtyard.

* * *

Later that day, Romani, having finished her morning chores, caught up with him. "Hi, Grasshopper!" she greeted him brightly. "I figured you'd be out exploring. Don't you just love it here?" Receiving no answer, she continued, "Want to see the dog races we hold? They're really fun!" The boy allowed himself to be pulled back to the west end of the ranch again, this time through another doorway in the rock surrounding the grounds, and into a large, walled-off racetrack.

Romani proved far more adept at picking winners than her friend – "It's just something I can sense," she explained – but even so, the two spent an enjoyable afternoon watching the little Scottie dogs race, then petting and playing with them afterwards.

Dusk was again falling when Romani led her playmate back towards the house. "I had fun today, Grasshopper." She beamed widely at him, desperate to elicit some sort of change in his demeanor or silence. "Let's go have dinner. Cremia made it special tonight."

Darkness pressed in all around the little house, but could not fight back the warm light from within it. The two girls and their wordless guest savored the delicious, hearty meal Cremia had prepared: soft biscuits with homemade butter, sharp cheese, a thick vegetable stew, and the sweet, smooth milk that the ranch was famous for: Chateau Romani. The boy enjoyed this last item immensely, for it filled him with a feeling of health and well-being.

"I'd like your help this evening," Cremia said as they dug into a fresh apple pie. "From both of you," she added, catching her younger sister's inquisitive look at her friend.

"What is it?" Romani asked.

"I need to deliver some fresh milk to the milk bar tonight, but I've heard that some bandits have been ambushing travelers around these parts. Both of you are skilled with a bow, and I'd like some help fighting them off if there's any trouble."

Romani was speechless with delight. She turned to the boy. "Did you hear that, Grasshopper? We're going on an adventure!"

He considered for a moment that this was the least adventure-like adventure he'd ever had, but upon seeing the look of childish glee on her face, he smiled. How pleasant to encounter such pure wonderment, such innocent curiosity in the world. He suddenly became aware of the fact that he didn't know how to feel that way anymore. It had been years since he'd seen everything through the eyes of youth, and he found himself envying Romani. She, after all, cared not a cucco's feather for the alarming presence of the evil moon. He, on the other hand, could scarcely recall a time when he'd had the luxury of not caring. He sighed, half-wistfully and half-sadly.

Cremia eyed him when he did this, experiencing the dawning understanding that little Romani had received the night before: this boy, strange though he was, was far older than she.

"Anyway," she said, opting not to voice her thoughts, "we should probably go prepare the wagon. Get your bows ready."

* * *

**_Day 3  
-24 Hours Remain-  
_**

Romani was already awake by the time her guest arose for the day. "Hi, Grasshopper!" she sang from the table, where she was eating her breakfast. "Want to take a walk today? There's a funny man who lives a little way down Milk Road. He's really weird!"

The boy nodded his assent, already knowing who Romani was talking about.

The pair rode their horses down the road the boy had already traveled countless times before. They stopped to chat with Tingle, who was just as confoundingly strange as ever. He was not one for long conversation, however, and soon reinflated his balloon and took his leave. Romani and her friend continued on to Termina Field, emerging into the expansive area near a large, dead tree, around which a massive and ugly vulture circled. Romani pulled out her bow, and with a brusque,"I'll take care of him," shot the bird down with a few arrows. "He's always bothering me," she informed the boy, "so if I shoot him to the ground he leaves me alone for awhile." She furrowed her brow. "He always seems to come back, though!"

They rode around the grassy area south of Clock Town for awhile, savoring the balmy air, ignoring (or trying to ignore) the impossibly large moon grimacing malevolently at all of Termina. Every so often the earth shook threateningly, startling the horses as they grazed on the sweet clover growing there. When one particularly forceful tremor knocked Romani off her feet, she got up and scowled at the moon. "Why won't you just … go away!" she screeched, cradling her left palm, which she'd scraped and was now bleeding a bit. The moon, of course, did not stop scowling down at them, and Romani burst into tears. "I hate that moon! Why does it have to ruin everything?" she sobbed, flopping into the grass and ripping the little green blades out of the ground.

The boy watched her, feeling pangs of sympathy. He, too, wanted to throw up his hands or stomp the ground or cry, but if he were to give in to these desires, would it affect his determination or resolve? How could he keep pressing onwards towards his goal if he were to indulge such weaknesses?

At the same time, he felt waves of guilt wash over him. How selfish he was, to be sitting here, enjoying three days of friendship and relaxation, when Romani was so scared, and when there were unbelievably important things to be done!

Immediately following this thought was a memory of Tatl's words: no one was being harmed by this. He looked at Romani, who had quieted down, and knelt beside her. He wanted to tell her, he wanted her to know, so very badly. But no, there was no way a child could understand, could believe him. This anguish and frustration she was experiencing – it wasn't real, was it? It could not exist, because the only time it would exist would be the time he did not pull out his ocarina at the end of the three days and play that haunting melody. But those tears on her flushed cheeks looked very real indeed. _Was_ his tarrying harming people?

He stood again, helped her to her feet, and resolved to enjoy this final day with her, by exploring Termina together, and seeing this dangerous, beautiful land through her eyes.

* * *

It was a somber evening back on the ranch. Romani and the boy helped Cremia prepare dinner, but it was a difficult undertaking. The moon was so close that one could see the bulging, spidery veins in its yellow eyes, and the tremors rocking the earth had become quite severe. It was the general impression of the people of Termina that they were not long for this world; those who had openly scoffed at the idea of the moon crashing to the ground now quietly accepted their gruesome fate. Some tried to flee by taking to the sea, but for most, the unknowns of this journey were such cold comfort that they opted for the certainty of death, instead. The boy felt the pain from all this hopelessness and resignation to destruction, and fought the swelling in his heart as hard as he could.

Romani refused to go to sleep that night, which would have been difficult anyway with all the quaking, and instead resolved to stay up with her sister, her new friend, her dog, and her horse, until the end came.

It was one of the most difficult nights the boy had ever endured. They sat out front, all eyes facing Clock Town and the evil presence above it. The little white dog slept at Romani's feet, moaning in his sleep occasionally, or awaking with a start when the ground shook. Romani drifted back and forth between sleep and sleeplessness, her head lolling uneasily while she slept, her lip bitten in an attempt to stop the tears from pouring down her face when she was awake. Around midnight, Cremia departed amidst muffled sobs, saying that she could not stand it any longer.

And still, the boy remained, awake and alert, comforting his friend every now and again. He dared not slumber, but instead stayed steadfast and unshakeable, even though everything else around him was falling apart.

* * *

When the sky began pinkening with dim rays of light in the distance, the boy stood. "Where are you going?" Romani asked groggily, regarding him with blurry eyes.

He looked at her fondly for a moment. She stood. "Don't leave me, please," she pleaded, eyes welling up with tears again. He reached for her and she dove into his arms, whispering, "I don't want to be alone."

Just then, a tiny flicker of white light appeared beside them. Tatl. The boy smiled, realizing he could, just this once, grant Romani her wish.

"I'll see you again soon," he told her softly.

Retrieving a purple object from his pocket, he inhaled deeply and blew into it.

Eerie, timeless notes spilled from Link's ocarina, and Termina knew no more.

_**The End**_


End file.
